Saving his best for last

Lakeville hunter gets two big deer in about 10 minutes.

Lakeville hunter gets two big deer in about 10 minutes.

January 07, 2007

Outdoors ou talk about saving the best for last. That's what South Bend's Jason Gean did on his final deer hunting trip of the season last month. Gean invested more than 200 hours of scouting and hunting his farmland near Lakeville. The 33-year-old father of twin children owns his own roofing business, so he has plenty of time to hunt October through December. "I hunted every day with the exception of about seven days during the bow, gun and muzzleloader seasons," he said this week. "I'm a selective hunter, but more than anything else, I just love being out there." With the clock winding down Dec. 22, he killed two big deer with a muzzleloader during a 10-minute period. Both animals weighed in at 218 pounds. Granted, one of them was a doe, but a darn big doe. She field dressed at 175 pounds - huge by doe standards. She'll put a lot of venison on the Gean table in 2007. "As long as we have venison, that's what we're eating," the father of 5-year old twins explained. The other deer was an 11-point buck which was later aged by a taxidermist at nearly 9 years old. "He showed it, too," explained Gean. "His rack had several broken tines from fighting other bucks and he had two shotgun slugs in his hip. That's pretty astonishing considering that most bucks don't make it past 3 years old." The double kill occurred in the late afternoon. Although a few days remained in the muzzleloader season, Gean knew family obligations would keep him out of the field the rest of the year. He was walking quietly through an unpicked cornfield when he came across the big doe in a low area. She was accompanied by a button buck. "I decided that if I wanted enough venison for the year, I'd better not pass up the opportunity, so I shot the doe," he recalled. After confirming the kill, Gean called a friend on his cell phone and asked for help taking the big doe out of the field. "He said he'd be there in about 20 minutes, so I decided to do a little more hunting until he arrived," Gean explained. "I started walking toward an alfalfa field adjacent to the cornfield and stepped into a lane next to a brushy fence row." That's when he saw the 11-pointer tucked in some thicket about 15 yards away. "It was a windy day and I was upwind from him, so I knew it was a matter of seconds before he'd smell me and take off," Gean explained. "I took the shot I had and it dropped him." Gean had seen a lot of deer on his farm throughout the season, but had never seen the old warrior until that day. "I guess it pays to be patient," he said. During bow season, Gean shot a button buck with his landowners permit, but only because he had mistaken it for a doe. "As a landowner, I understand the need to take a few antlerless deer," he explained. "I'm not a trophy hunter, but I do believe in being more selective with the bucks because it makes the hunting experience more enjoyable." Louie Stout Commentary